Myanmar’s Suu Kyi – from prisoner to would-be lawmaker

Aung San Suu Kyi

(Reuters) – Aung San Suu Kyi, the long-time standard-bearer for democracy in Myanmar, is taking a leap of faith in running for parliament on Sunday, opting to enter a political system crafted and run by the soldiers who kept her locked up for a total of 15 years.

Her party’s participation in this weekend’s by-elections marks a change of heart for the Nobel Peace Prize winner who repeatedly rebuffed the military’s attempts to bring her into a political apparatus in which it dictated the terms.

But since a general election in November 2010, followed by Suu Kyi’s release from house arrest the same month, the pace of change in the former Burma under a nominally civilian government has been staggering, enough to convince her to compromise with the apparently reform-minded ex-generals now in charge.

Some Burmese fear it is a deal with the devil that will serve mainly to endorse a military-dominated legislature.

Suu Kyi is keeping an open mind.

“Some are a little bit too optimistic about the situation. We are cautiously optimistic. We are at the beginning of a road,” the 66-year-old Suu Kyi said last month.

“Many people are beginning to say that the democratisation process here is irreversible. It’s not so.”

There is little doubt that without her National League for Democracy (NLD) party’s participation, Sunday’s by-elections for 45 seats – just 7 percent of the elected seats in a legislature dominated by the military – would have barely registered on the global news agenda.

Instead, the polls have captured the world’s imagination and, if they are deemed free and fair, could persuade the West to start to lift economic sanctions imposed under the junta.

It was the Oxford-educated Suu Kyi’s steely determination in confronting the authoritarian generals that kept her country in the spotlight during its isolation, winning the hearts of her people and giving her a crucial role in the West’s targeted policies to squeeze Myanmar’s junta.

Suu Kyi was living in Britain but returned to her family home in April 1988 to care for her ailing mother just as resentment of junta rule boiled over into nationwide protests.

As the daughter of the General Aung San, Myanmar’s assassinated independence hero, Suu Kyi was persuaded to enter politics, giving a rousing speech to hundreds of thousands of people near Yangon’s Shwedagon Pagoda that catapulted her to the forefront of the fight against dictatorship.

HERO’S DAUGHTER

“I could not, as my father’s daughter, remain indifferent to all that was going on,” Suu Kyi told the crowd in August 1988.

The military crushed the uprising the following month. Thousands were killed and imprisoned. Paying the price for her popular appeal, Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest on July 19, 1989, and remained there for six years.

Even without her, the NLD overwhelmingly won an election in 1990 for an assembly to draft a new constitution, trouncing the military’s proxy party. The junta simply refused to allow the assembly to convene.

The NLD continued to reject the military’s demand for a leading role in politics. The top generals refused to hold dialogue with Suu Kyi and questioned her patriotism by calling her by her British married name, Mrs Michael Aris.

Even in her brief periods of freedom after 1989, she never left Myanmar, afraid that the military would not let back in. For that reason she was unable to be with Aris, an Oxford academic, when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and died in Britain in 1999.

Their love story has been played out on the big screen, with Malaysian star Michelle Yeoh playing Suu Kyi in a 2011 film “The Lady”, as she is affectionately known in Myanmar.

A final stint of house arrest – after she was found guilty of breaching an obsolete security law when an American intruder swam to her home and stayed for two nights – kept her out of the 2010 election, which the NLD boycotted and a military-backed won easily.

Insiders say the NLD was split on whether to run but Suu Kyi said she personally “would not dream” of taking part, which decided the matter.

Upon her release on November 13, 2010, thousands greeted her amid jubilation in Yangon.

The election held just six days earlier had promised little but, against all odds, the civilian administration under President Thein Sein has released more than 600 political prisoners, reached ceasefires with ethnic militias and begun to overhaul the economy.

Suu Kyi and Thein Sein, a softly spoken former junta general, have found some mutual understanding: she has called him “honest” and “sincere” and in November she accepted his appeal for the NLD to take part in the by-elections.

It will not be plain sailing.

The campaign trail has left Suu Kyi suffering from sickness and exhaustion and the NLD has alleged irregularities in the run-up to the ballot.

Suu Kyi has made no secret of the fact she wants to change a constitution that enshrines the military’s role in politics.

“There are certain laws which are obstacles to the freedom of the people,” she said during a rally. “We will strive to abolish these laws within the framework of the parliament.”

That puts her on a collision course with hardliners and an armed forces commander who just this week vowed to protect the military’s place in the corridors of power.

(Writing by Martin Petty in Bangkok; Editing by Alan Raybould and Jonathan Thatcher)


Src  :  euronews

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Mungpi Buansing + Huaino

 

NLD statement has led to misunderstanding: KIO

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) says a statement by the National League for Democracy (NLD) has created confusion around the postponement of elections in three constituencies in Kachin State.

On March 23, the Burmese government announced that elections in Bhamo, Phakant and Mogoung constituencies would be postponed, claiming the area was too dangerous for elections to be held. The NLD planned to contest in all three constituencies.

According to La Nan, a KIO spokesman, an NLD central campaign committee statement issued on Monday said, “The NLD wants to discuss and negotiate with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA)” about holding elections in the constituencies.

“We’re concerned about the misinterpretation of this statement because the KIO has no responsibility for cancelling the voting in these three constituencies. In fact, we have nothing to do with the decision taken by the government. The statement could be interpreted to mean the by-elections in these constituencies can be held only after getting approval from the KIO,” he told Mizzima.

The NLD statement said the by-elections could be held in these constituencies on April 1 as planned if the election commission or government helps in negotiating with the KIO and its army, La Nang said.

He told Mizzima: “There are no movements of KIO troops in these areas so there would be no harassment from us. We don’t understand their intentions in postponing these elections. The reason given on security grounds is not logical and it is unfounded.”

The NLD should contact the KIO directly to discuss the issue, he said.

The NLD statement also said Aung San Suu Kyi is ready to help negotiate peace in Kachin State and to meet with government or KIO officials.

The Union government said it postponed the elections in the constituencies “on security grounds as there would be no guarantee for holding free and fair elections.”


Src  : Mizzima

Umpeim Mai Refugee Camp recovering, but aid still needed

An update on the devastating fire at the Umpeim Mai Refugee Camp on the Thai-Burmese border has established that 566 families lost all or most of the possessions. The camp is home to over 17,600 Burmese refugees.

An overview of the Umpiem Mai Refugee Camp showing the destroyed houses on the side of a mountain. The fire on February 23 devastated a large portion of the camp. Photo: TBBC

The fire on February 23 destroyed 420 houses and damaged about 350. An estimated 2,500 refugees have lost everything, including their monthly food ration that they received the day before the fire.

The Thailand-Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) urgently needs funding to help rebuild and repair the houses that have been destroyed or damaged by the fire and to replace the one-month food ration that the affected refugees have lost.

The total estimated budget to affect a return to normal conditions is 13,132,105 baht (US$ 427,000).

To donate money or other goods go to: http://www.tbbc.org/donate/donate.htm

A summary of the a recent camp survey showed:

– Many people are not receiving fresh food, e.g., vegetables & meat.
– There is currently no gap for dry food, although fresh vegetables/ meats are not currently available to significant numbers of the affected population.
–Clothing: mostly women’s clothes have been received, but we still require between 500 and 600 sarongs for men.
– Currently, it has been confirmed 420 houses were completely consumed by fire, with a further two nursery schools, two mosques, on security office, four section offices, and one Muslim Women’s office.
– An additional 350 houses will need some repairs to their roof as this is the most flammable part of the building and many were taken down in efforts to save the building and stop the fire spreading further.
– Already more than 200 families have moved back to the site (from the 566 families displaced). For more families to move back a major site cleanup is needed to remove debris and to level and re-stabilize the land/soil that has been burnt. Also water supply and latrines are needed as families move back.
– TBBC is in a good position to procure and deliver the needed building materials, as we currently have a 2-3 months window to deliver the materials. Current estimates for shelter materials are 6,000 posts, 8,000 beams, 120,000 bamboo poles, 220,000 grass thatches, 1,000kg wire, 6,000 kg nails for a budget of approximately 12 million baht.
– Livelihoods: 84 of the 420 houses burned were small businesses.
–Education: Two nursery schools and a storeroom of education equipment and materials have been affected by the fire. Estimated losses include textbooks, stationary, sports equipment, furniture, and vocational training equipment totaling some 450,000 baht. The re-construction of schools will costs a further 250,000 baht.



Src  :  Mizzima

Jade processing bill approved by Kachin State Assembly

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – A bill that will allow local processing, cutting and polishing of jade has been passed by the Kachin State Assembly. When enacted, lawmakers say many new jobs will be created in the state.

Workers at a jade mining area in Kachin State Photo: Phyusin Linn/Mizzima

USDP party legislator Pho Pa Kywe of Shwegu constituency 2 introduced the bill on March 1, and the bill passed unanimously. It must now be signed by the president.

In the 2008 Constitution, states were given powers to pass legislation in defined areas of energy, electricity, mining and forestry.

Currently, jade stones are mined in Kachin State, but the stones must be sent to Naypyitaw for cutting and polishing work, which increases the final cost of the products.

The bill's passage will be benefit both jade merchants and local people in Kachin State, said La Awng, vice chairman of the Jade and Gemstones Merchants Association (Myitkyina).

“The livelihood of local people will be better. The jade market will provide opportunities for more local people,” he told Mizzima.

The Jade and Gemstones Merchants Association (Myitkyina) was formed on March 3. Officers are Za Laung, chairman; and Tu Khaung, secretary. The association, with about 400 members, has a head office in Naypyitaw with branches are in Phakant, Mandalay, Sagaing and Mogok.

The current session of the Kachin State assembly was convened on February 27. The assembly is now deliberating on the state budget. The assembly has a total of 51 legislators of which 38 are elected and 18 are military-appointed.

The economy of Kachin State is predominantly agricultural, according to Wikipedia. The main products include rice and sugar cane. Mineral production includes gold and jade. Hpakan is a well-known area for jade mines. Most of the jade stones extracted in Burma (25,795 tons in 2009-2010 and 32,921 tons in 2008-2009) are from Kachin State.

The largest jade stone in the world (3,000 tons: 21 meters long, 4.8 meters wide and 10.5 meters high) was found in Hpakan in 2000. Most raw jade stones are sold to Chinese traders in sales conducted in Naypyitaw several times each year.


Src  :  Mizzima